The Legend of Zelda: Pawns of Prophecy
by Thait
Summary: The adventure of the Twilight Princess is over and peace fills the land. But prophecy isnt done with Link and the goddessess still have plans. Childhood and lives destroyed are all the Heros of Hyrule have gotten from service to the triforce.  Until now.
1. Chapter 1

Greetings! This is my only second game based fanfiction, first on this site, and hopefully it meets with approval. Due to it being summer time my writing time is extremely slow because of work though it picks up quite a bit in winter time. For those who read this who also read my Ranm ½ story no it's not dead it's just summer and add in that my muse slapped me around about a Zelda story and I couldn't refuse writing this one. I'll get to writing Ranma stuff as well again hopefully soon.

I own nothing of legend of Zelda.

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CHAPTER 1 

_She had known something was wrong ever since he had finished his grand adventure. Ilia had known when they had returned from Kakariko that something had been different about Link. Midna, a name that she didn't know, a name of a woman that Link seemed unable to talk about without gaining a soft, sad smile. Ilia realized that somehow she had lost the affections of the boy she cared greatly for to a woman that she had never even met. The Twilight Hero, as he had come to be known, spoke of Midna often but never explained how the woman had helped him or what the relationship between the two had been. And then a year after the events that had started within the Ordon Woods were finished Link had been called to Hyrule Castle and asked to investigate something for the crown. Link had promised Ilia and the others that he would return as swiftly as possible, instead Epona had appeared several weeks later stumbling into Ordon Village with a tattered coat and blood caked fur. Exhausted nearly to the point of death the horse had taken weeks to recover completely and everyone feared the worst when Link never appeared in any town or province of Hyrule._

With a mighty shriek of pain the massive lizard fell crashing into the two massive support pillars that held up the ceiling of the castle and shattering them off bringing the roof down with it. A figure in green rushed through the falling rubble towards the edge of the large dungeon area and fired a clawshot upwards into the vines growing across stone by the remains of what had been a staircase. Link was jerked upwards catching the edge of the stone he pulled himself into the hallway and began to run as rock broke apart around him. Behind the Twilight Hero the massive beast's corpse glowed and a sphere of red light lifted through the air to float within the room and began to pulse with a steady glow. Between one step and the next darkness swept around Link and then vanished leaving a large black and grey furred wolf rushing down the hallways and darting past fallen and falling rubble.

_The paper fluttered on the bar as a small breeze wafted through alerting Telma that someone had come in. The woman turned to see Rusl walking across the bar and into the back room where the others sat staring at a map that wasn't showing them any answers to their questions. The man slumped heavily into a chair setting his helm onto the table and looking to where his prized golden cucco was pecking at a bowl of food left by Telma. "There was nothing there but a crater." Those simple words seemed to pull every once of hope from the room and people slumped in chairs and looked with sad eyes at the map. For the first time in his life Rusl heard the overly proud and strong Ashei cry._

Claws dug into soft sand as the wolf rushed down dark hallways past still living creatures rushing for exits and past undead creations still toiling at their posts even as rubble slammed down around them. Links enhanced senses picked up the sent of fresh air coming from the entrance to the ancient castle and he picked up speed outpacing several brown skinned Bulblin's as they scurried for the exit as well. With a thunderous crack a massive chunk of rock from the ceiling slammed down into the hallway blocking the passage and causing the Bulblin's to howl in despair. Link moved forwards examining the rock for a second then leapt to one section of sand and began to dig working his way under the rock and through loose sand before pulling himself out into open hallway beyond the rubble. Shaking sand from his fur he bolted down the passageway and towards what he hoped was still an open door to the outside. Far behind the fleeing wolf the red sphere began to pulse much faster.

_It had been exactly six years since Link had vanished and people of the kingdom had honored the memory of his bravery every year. They had erected a large pedestal within the square of Castle Town which bore a sword driven into the stone on top and a simple plaque that read 'The bravery of one was all that was needed to save the many.' Auru had been the first to notice the strangeness that had seemed to begin flowing from the Gerudo desert. The investigators that had been sent to look through the remains of the old Hylian prison and then head on to where Link, and the ancient structure he had been sent to investigate, had vanished. The strange black mist had flowed across the desert and then poured down into Lake Hylia blackening the water and leaving a foul stench in the air. Less than two days later the remains of the investigation team had stumbled into Castle Town, insane and ranting about phantoms in the shadows and darkness approaching. The very same day the generals of the military had dispatched nearly seventy men to investigate the strange black mist that had entered Lake Hylia. None of the men returned._

The final sight of light shining from around the corner managed to get an excited bark from the wolf as he rushed around the last corner only to nearly be skewered by a large blade held in the metal hand of a massive Darknut. The wolf skidded to a stop then leapt back growling darkly at the large metal covered being as it began a clanking advance while bringing its shield into guard position. Link backed away cringing away from crashing rocks as debris rained down around him, the Darknut took one more clanking step forward and with a mighty heave swept its sword down towards the wolf's head. With a thump grey paws impacted armor as the wolf used the Darknut's shoulder as a leaping point to propel him towards the door. Far behind the armored warrior and the Twilight wolf the red sphere reached a point where it's flashing became a solid glow and the sphere went dark before loosing out a wave of red energy that blasted out through the castle. Where red energy touched things froze, the rubble froze in midair, the fleeing monsters froze in mid-step, even the rushing winds seemed to stop and not move again. Just as Link leapt for the entrance the red wave washed over him and the Darknut, and everything stopped.

_Ilia drove the tip of her sword into the ground and leaned on the hilt panting for breath after the strenuous training. Soldiers moved around her settling crates of supplies against buildings and within barns while setting defenses near the cave that led into the hidden village. It had been ten years since the darkness appeared and began its assault on the world bringing with it the undead that had plagued the Hylian military for years. When Ilia had joined she had had no idea that she would end up in command of the shattered remnants of the military as they performed hit and run attacks against the forces of creatures that traveled with the darkness and served its master. They had first believed that it was somehow connected to the Twili and that they were being attacked by the Twilight again until they had really gotten the chance to examine the remains of several of the undead things and realized that they were being animated by magic far different from the Twilight powers of the Twili._

Darkness flowed through the shadows seeming to flit from place to place, a moving shadow within shadows as it darted along dark corridors and down deep within the ancient stone fortress. It reached the center of the castle and watched the red stone as, slowly, a pulse of red began deep within the stone and built up to a soft glow before fading out. After nearly a full day of waiting the shadow watched as another pulse began to slowly build up within the stone growing bright before fading out and then beginning to build once more. The shadow flitted from place to place back towards the entrance of the castle then stopped next to a wolf frozen in mid-leap and morphed into the shadowy image of a woman. Dark fingers trailed through silken fur as she looked into frozen blue eyes and with a smile she tapped the wolf on the nose "Don't give up kid, it's about time these high and mighty types learn that this world isn't their toy."

_Colin stood on the top of the wall staring down into the twisted remains of Orden Woods while keeping an eye on Malo as well, the 23 year old wasn't nearly as careful as Colin was and he was worried that with the current depression that Malo had fallen into he might try something foolish, like attacking the water creature. Eleven years had passed since the entrance of the darkness into the world, and it had been seventeen years since Link had been seen last. Colin had tried to believe that Link was still out there somewhere, just unable to help them for some reason but that belief had faded and slowly he had come to the same conclusion others had come to long ago. He had mourned his friend and then moved on, he had promised Link that he would be as strong as Link was someday and he was desperately trying to reach that level of strength. Seventeen years, and Hyrule finally knew what it was like to be without a hero._

Deep within frozen shadows and air red light flashed swiftly along the walls in rapid pulses as it built to a brilliant blinding glare of red before everything went dark. Red energy exploded outwards in a bright wave of color that returned motion and life to a dead ruin as it washed through ancient hallways and rooms. Loud crashes followed the light as rubble slammed down behind the wave and the castle began to finish the collapse stated long ago. Shadows flashed to life near the frozen wolf and the shadow woman smiled as she sensed the approaching energy and turned to the suspended wolf brushing sand from the beasts fur before letting her fingers trail across the symbol done in white fur on the wolfs forehead. "It's time, time to go out and play." The woman looked back as red energy rushed forward "Now be a good little doggy and do what you do best…Live." Red washed over the area and the wolf burst free of the collapsing castle into the sand and bounded away into the desert as the ancient Hylian structure collapsed into ruin.

The sun was high in the sky and Link looked upwards at the cloudless expanse before looking back at the destroyed castle and wondering if any of the creatures within had escaped. Epona wasn't anywhere that Link could see or even smell causing the wolf some concern; as he moved around the strewn chunks of rubble that had once been the castle walls long ago he kept a close eye out for his horse. Paws sank into sand and waves of heat soaked into him heating up black fur enough to start the wolf panting, with a final decision Link concentrated on returning to human form.

It was like a spike of agony ripping through his chest and deep into him causing waves of pain to rush outwards through his whole body forcing the pained howl from him. Unseen by Link on his left paw the image of the tri-force gave a sporadic glow before the image lifted from the wolf's paw and vanished in a small sparkle of light. The pain Link was feeling vanished immediately and the hero was left shuddering on the ground wishing that the memory of the pain would go away as well. The hero slowly pushed himself up and with shaking steps began to move out into the desert in the direction of the pass that led back into the main section of the Gerudo desert. As the last vestiges of the pain had vanished the walk had turned into a steady loping run that had covered a large distance even though it was daytime. The swift run had turned into a slow run which had eventually turned into a walk and finally a slow stumbling stagger that had managed to get him into the shelter of trees at the oasis he had passed through on his way to the castle.

Shadows flitted through the night shrouded desert until they reached the oasis and settled onto a rock jutting out of the edge of the water while keeping an eye on the wolf's curled up form where he rested sleeping next to a tree trunk. The shadow woman sat quietly for a moment then flew to the wolf and settled kneeling next to him staying still for a moment before letting fingers slip down to the wolf's left paw and stroking the spot the tri-force of courage had previously occupied. The woman looked sadly upon the wolf even as shadows slipped from her hand and wrapped themselves around the paw and healed the internal damage done by the extraction of the tri-force. Shadows shifted and the woman laid back against the wolf's side letting her hand settle on Link's head and seconds later began to idly scratch the wolf behind one ear.

"It's somewhat sad don't you think?" The voice came from near the rock she had sat on before "He is supposed to be the great Hero isn't he? And yet he would never have been on his way to get involved in the current problems if you hadn't intervened."

The woman stiffened and immediately flew upwards glaring at the small black flame looking shadow that flitted around the rock. "This world has suffered enough! How many times must Ganon be allowed to return and wreak havoc? How many innocents have to suffer or die due to their inaction!"

"It is not our place to interfere daughter." The frown shown through in the other shadows voice "This world is of no consequence."

"And when Ganon is allowed to return and this world is washed away in flood?" The woman floated forward anger clearly showing on her face. "Will we be blameless then as well when we could do something about it?! The gods will happily drown the people of this world merely to stop a being they themselves could have stopped long ago." The woman turned and looked sadly at the wolf lying in the sand. "And eventually after millennia they would have awoken him and forced him to fight for them once again; again fighting Ganon! I will NOT allow this travesty to continue any longer!"

"As you wish daughter, it is your choice." The shadow turned and began to fade away "But understand that every choice has consequences, this one simply hasn't shown its downside yet."

The woman turned and floated back to the wolf settling to the sand next to the wolf and looking at him closely before sitting back and sighing. "I know you likely won't understand what's going on right away but I hope this will help in the end." Black eyes looked upwards at the starlit sky and she could feel the power of ancient and angered beings slipping across her shields as the goddesses searched for the one that had been the bearer of the tri-force of courage. "In the end it's a choice I had to make, both for this time and the future. It's time to end this cycle and time to make this world free of the petty manipulations that have driven it for so long." Shadows flowed down over the sleeping wolf's left paw then pulled back revealing a symbol of a winged sword glowing on the back of the paw before it faded out. "And that should keep you safe from prying eyes; this is all I can do for now so the rest is up to you little doggy."

With a wink of black the shadows vanished, blue eyes snapped open and Link stood examining the area but finding nothing except for a faint scent of roses that seemed to float strangely in a single area but nowhere else. Paws sank into sand as he moved forward and dunked his head into the pond drinking his fill before pulling his head out and shaking water from his fur. Wandering back to the tree he was about to lay down when he heard a strange echoing chittering sound that seemed to waft in on the breeze. Moving to the edge of the trees Link looked out at the desert but saw nothing moving even as the sound got closer and closer until he could see sand bursting outwards from indents that thumped down into it in multiple places. A slight concentration was all it took to activate his Senses and under the strange vision he could suddenly see a massive scorpion that seemed to be moving across the sand towards the pass that would lead it into the main sections of the Gerudo desert.

The scorpion didn't even seem to notice the wolf standing at the edge of the oasis and it passed by with legs nearly and thick around as Link's wolf form and its underside taller than him in human form. As he watched the giant scorpion moving away through the desert the thought of his human form and the desire to return to it was enough that he decided to attempt the shift. Bracing himself incase he was struck with the same pain as before he concentrated and tried to release the magic that he knew was there only to feel nothing at all. For a second irrational anger flashed through his mind and his wolf's instincts pushed forward enough for an enraged howl to echo over the desert until he got control of himself again. Pacing back and forth through the oasis the hero tried to think of what could have happened that could hold him in his wolf form but came up blank until he thought of the spirits and how they had known what to do to return him to human form the first time.

Blue eyes scanned the sky noting the time and Link decided to head out now instead of waiting for the heat of the day which would likely cause him trouble. Several hours after leaving the oasis he reached the bottom of the pass and glanced at the scorpions trail which lead directly for the Arbiter's Grounds, the ancient Hylian prison that had bore the Twilight Mirror. The wolf on the other hand headed straight through the center of the desert on a path directly for Lake Hylia in the hopes of reaching the spirit Lanaryu and receiving help. Paws sank into soft sand as Link struggled up the last incline before he reached solid rock and padded across it to the edge of the cliff that fell away into Lake Hylia. Below him black slime coated waters washed up against the rock and the shattered and rotted remains of Fyer's floating house/cannon were visible still resting on the lake's surface.

As Link looked upon the lake and heard the faint shrieks of unknown beasts he could tell that something had gone horribly wrong while he had been investigating the castle.


	2. Chapter 2

I'm back! Sorry if the beginning of this chapter is weak, or the full chapter itself. This is the first thing I've written in a while so it might not be up to what I consider my normal. Especially the first few paragraphs as I was having trouble getting started and moving things along. I'm expanding the size of Hyrule somewhat, making the land larger. I had difficulty figuring out where to go with the desert and so that made writing this chapter difficult, not to mention the length of time between writing. I should handle the next stuff easier, I hope. I'm already working on chapter 3 for this and I don't plan to have another break like my last.

"Talking"

_Thinking_

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Sand churned as the wolfs paws tore into it as he rushed farther and farther from the cliffs overlooking lake Hylia. It hadn't taken more than a simple glance to tell him that jumping down into those waters was a very bad idea. It wasn't just the blackness of the waters, it was the huge...thing, that had shifted under those waters while he was watching. That left only one option left for him to take, the road into the desert he had taken on his trip here. That road had been cleared by the Gorons after the problems with the Twilight were finished and he had used it to reach the desert on Epona instead of getting blasted into the desert by Fyer. Even so that road was some distance from where he was and the morning sun was already heating things up at a swift rate. His current pace would bring him to a ruined tower that he had sheltered in on his last trip, the tower was heavily damaged but it worked as a good place to catch some rest before moving on. In truth he hoped to use it as a place to hide out until night and then he could begin to travel again in the dark. The tower wasn't the first set of ruins he had run into on his treks around the kingdom and he was starting to wonder where they all had come from. Even Shad had little knowledge on their original builders or purpose.

An hour later the tower loomed in the distance and he was swiftly approaching his sanctuary for the day when he heard the thudding rumble from behind him. Sliding to a stop he looked back to see a large Bullbo and its riders bearing down on him. They were still some distance off though and he quickly began a run towards the tower trying to reach it before the Bullbo and the Bulblins could reach him. Even so the Bullbo was starting to catch up and he began to swerve left and right as flaming arrows streaked after him. He was so focused on the run forward that it took him a moment to hear the muffled, but still very loud, crack that sounded from below the sands. He didn't miss the loud rumble and risked a look back when no more arrows shot towards him. The Bullbo was desperatly struggling to continue forwards as the sand dropped out from underneath it and the Bulblins squealed as they and their mount vanished under the sands leaving a spreading dark hole as sand plummeted down along with a thundering rumble of stone smashing into stone. Even as fast as he tried to move he wasn't fast enough.

Sun shone down into a hallway that had seen no sun in more years than anyone alive would remember. Much of the hallway now was choked with large blocks of stone and a huge amount of sand. Near the edge of the pile the sand shifted and a head broke free followed by the rest of a furred body and the wolf tumbled down the short fall to the stone floor with a yelp. Wincing and favoring his right front leg Link stood shaking the sand from his fur and looked around in confusion. He was standing in a hallway, that much was obvious to him, and it wasn't something that had been naturally made either. The large quarried blocks of stone that made up said hallway told him that much. Looking back he saw the entire hallway was clogged with the stone and sand making any travel that way impossible. It was possible that he could climb the rocks jutting out of the sand and reach the ground above but his curiosity was also starting to get the better of him. Looking in the direction of the tower he could make out the frame of a door and what looked to be a broken door still hanging from hinges. He listened closely trying to hear past the sound of sand sifting down from above but he could hear no sound of enemies or danger. Moving silently down the hallway he reached the door looking over the broken wood seeing where someone had smashed it inwards. He couldn't see much through the missing sections of wood due to the darkness inside and so ducked his head aside and put a shoulder against the door and pushed shoving it open to allow the light shining down through the new hole in the hallway to at least give some illumination to the room. The first thing he saw was to mummified corpses lying near the door as if they had been rushing for it when struck down. He hesitated but they didn't move or do anything to show they were anything but corpses. _Dead things not trying to make __**me**__ dead, that's new_. He moved into the room watching everything carefully for enemies but as far as he was able to tell the place was abandoned even by monsters.

The room was obviously the base of the tower, he could even see a set of stairs leading up to a hatch that must have been covered in sand and rubble above or he would have noticed it when he was first in the tower above. There were five corpses total in the room, mummified by the desert heat. The two by the door had been killed by the simple act of being stabbed in the chest. There was one slumped over a table in the middle of the room and it sported two steel arrow shafts sticking up from its back, another two arrows were buried in the far wall and he tried to think of the strength of the bow needed to fire solid steel arrows at any distance and strength. They were too long to be crossbow bolts unless the crossbow was impressively large. The other two corpses were slumped near the table as well, one was missing it's head which appeared to be under the table, while the other had lost an arm _and_ it's head. He had been about to move on when he noticed that the dead bodies were wearing armor bearing the Hyrulean royal crest. That would have meant these were knights of Hyrule, or at least soldiers of the crown. But he had no knowledge of anything out here, except...he recalled that the castle he had fought that large lizard in had also had the royal crest in it. Was it possible that all this was once part of the kingdom?

The room itself held some interest as he smelled water and a quick look at the walls showed him it's place. Attached to the wall was a small fountain with water running down into a small basin which apparently was also always being emptied to keep the water flowing so it wouldn't stagnate. Surprisingly there was a metal frame containing glass to keep the dirt and sand out. It took a bit of work with one paw, and eventually his teeth, but he managed to get the door open and gratefully dunked his muzzle into the water drinking his fill before backing off and sighing. Turning he surveyed the room again wondering when this place had been built. The dead had been here for a long time, that much was certain, but after a length of time in the desert heat they would look the same if they had been here for a hundred years or four hundred. But if this place had even been mentioned in the old histories he had no doubt that Zelda and the historical society would have asked him to try and find it. Even so he would have to make sure to speak of it to them, if he ever made it back there. And his instincts were telling him that he needed to make good time with all the strangeness going on.

He had just turned around when he spotted something on the wall, moving closer he stared in surprise at the huge metal map that appeared to have been hastily attached to the wall. The map was big and showed much but he noticed that Hyrule was shown on it with its name etched in gold. As he got closer he could make out the Zora domain, Death Mountain, and the Gerudo desert. But there was so much more. Hyrule was bordered on all sides by massive mountians and outside those mountains were other lands, and other names. Venix, Obrinia, Land of the Black Sand, Mist Ocean, Halfax, the list went on. Oceans and land masses were shown and he realized that this map must show the entire world, for there was nothing else that it could be. Hyrule was cut off from everything else by the mountains but he noticed that in one section of Hyrule there appeared to be the representation of a large road cutting through one mountain. He looked at it curiously, some kind of trade route maybe? Since it appeared to cut through multiple lands that was the only thing he could think it was. But if it was a trade route why didn't anyone know of it? In fact much on this map appeared different, the representation of Castle Town was not in the right place, and there were far more towns and villages shown than there actually was in Hyrule. Looking closer at the map he noticed that the mountains where the trade route entered them had a X marked in the metal and something written in tiny lettering next to it. He could see it but it appeared to be written in ancient Hylian and he couldn't read it. A danger warning maybe, or possibly just a name.

Even so he couldn't waste more time and moved under the stairs and curled up to sleep till nightfall.

Dim light from the setting sun barely lit the hallway much less the room when he woke and Link quickly took a drink, bowed his head in prayer for the ancient fallen knights and then quickly climbed his way back up through the collapsed hallway to the desert above. The sun was setting and he looked over at the tower, it was interesting to now know how much of the structure actually survived. The shattered remains that he could see from where he stood now made him wonder what had happened here, who had killed the knights and where that hallway had gone before it was blocked by the collapse. He shook the musings from his mind and quickly took off at a measured pace to make sure he would have his strength throughout the night. If he paced himself he could even make it to the base of the pass and reach a road to Hyrule Field. From there...he wasn't sure. Part of him wanted to head straight for Ordon village and the spirit that was in the spring there but it would be almost as easy, if not easier, to get to Kakariko and visit the spirit there.

As the sun began to rise in the morning he found himself passing off of the last sand and onto the more solid rock of the road that would lead him up into hyrule field. His trip, starting from the castle had been mostly unimpeded and he was starting to get worried that his luck was going to run out soon and he'd be in the middle of a fight with Bulblins or Bokoblins but besides a few worms he ran into nothing of danger on the route out to the Field. Sitting at the edge of Hyrule field he looked out over the land and considered his options. To get to Kakariko would take at least two days of fast heavy travel, most likely avoiding enemies, and possibly even mounted Bulblins. The second option was to head for Ordon woods and try to get to the spirit there. That was a just shy of a two and a half day trip from where he was though and could end up landing him in deeper trouble enemy wise even if it put him closer to home. In the end he decided for closer and less fighting and angled for Kakariko hoping to get help there and then head back towards home. It was possible he could even call Epona from there.

The first day and a half of travel had gone off with no problems besides a few irritating Bokoblins that he had dispatched quickly before moving on. But now he was crouched in the tall grass watching as a troop of what looked like armored skeletons tromped by down the road towards Kakariko. He wasn't sure what they were doing, or what they were for that matter but he knew he couldn't let them reach Kakariko without the town being warned, or at least put on alert. At their current rate of advance they likely wouldn't reach the town for a day at the least though he wouldn't put their arrival beyond a day and a half at most. Which gave him a limited time to get to the town and stir things up. While he wouldn't be able to warn them as a wolf there was a chance he could speak to the spirit and get help, and even if the spirit couldn't help him he could at least get the town to post lookouts who would spot the skeletal soldiers. Even so he also couldn't help but wonder where the things had come from and who had sent them. Ganondorf was dead and thus couldn't be involved, did it mean another enemy was here? He decided to figure it out later and began the long and difficult task of bypassing the enemy while trying not to be seen. In total it took nearly the rest of the day to do but he finally ended up ahead of them.

As the sun began to set, and he tried to hold off exhaustion from his nearly day and a half run he noticed that the skeletons weren't stopping. It was at that point he realized his mistake, the undead didn't need to sleep or rest, they'd travel through the night which would put them into Kakariko sometime in late morning most likely. In a second he made a decision and broke from cover running as fast as he could ahead of the skeletons heading for the village, he was far enough ahead that they would very likely not send anything after him. Behind him the skeletons at the lead watched disinterestedly as the massive wolf took off from the tall grass far ahead of them. Their orders where to head to the ruins of Kakariko, not attack or even care about wild animals so their pace continued as normal and no orders to intercept were given.

The sun had gone down several hours ago and now Link could feel the burning in his muscles as he continued to push himself. The moon gave enough light to see by and the night air cooled his lungs with each panting breath, he spent quite some time trying to ignore the tall grass whipping against his face as he ran through it. His approach to Kakariko was nearing the gates that he had dug under on his first trip to the village, gates that he could now see lay shattered on the sides of the path. Slowing his approach and finally stopping at the gates he sniffed around the wreckage but could only scent Bulblins, and something else that was to faint to really identify. He moved now at a simple trot towards the village and the sacred spring until a strange, rotting scent wafted to him. He frowned and moved cautiously up the path sniffing everything ahead of him trying to identify the rotting smell. As he turned a corner and finally got his first glimpse of the sacred spring he realized that he had found the smell.

The Spring's water was as slimy and black as the waters of lake Hylia and his sense of smell was good enough that he didn't even want to get close to the tainted water. But as he approached he got his first look at the village itself. He passed the spring without paying any attention to it now, staring at the village that had suffered so much during the twilight invasion. A second later a mournful howl echoed out across the Field nearby and up to Death Mountain. As his howl faded the twilight wolf stared sadly at the shattered and burned buildings. It looked like some of them had even been destroyed by bombs. This was the last thing he needed to confirm what he had been fearing since he had seen Lake Hylia. There was no way this kind of destruction could have happened in the short time he had been exploring the castle, no way another enemy could have turned up so swiftly after the fall of Ganon. Something had happened, something bad had befallen his friends here, and there wasn't even a spirit to talk to.

His foray into the village was stopped when his instincts started to demand he pay attention. He froze as he realized there was no sound in the village. No scavengers, no monsters, no nothing. This damage looked to have been done years ago and yet nothing was moving in the village. He slowly turned his head looking at the opening above the spirits spring. Something moved, shifting around in the darkness there and then it began to come forwards into the light of the moon.

Armor, that was the first thing that he saw. Thick black armor covered in runes glowing with a dull red light. Said armor nearly completely covered what looked to be a huge lizard. The giant head swung one direction then another and a long thick forked tongue flicked out testing the air. A second later a huge clawed foot smashed down into tainted water followed by another. Link backed away slowly as the huge lizard pulled itself free of the water and seemed to focus its eyes directly on him. It dipped it's head down a little and flicked it's tongue out again before letting out a loud hissing and taking a crashing step in his direction.

Link back away again, flattening his ears back and growling. _This just isn't my week_.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3 is up! Working on chapter 4 already. Still can't believe i got moving on this after so long. And to think all it took to give me a boot to the ass was a couple things i saw on youtube. Cool music set to Zelda stuff and my desire to write kicked on. Anyway, enjoy! Read and review if you want to.

As always i own nothing of Zelda, and never will.

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**KAKARIKO**

With a mighty crash the lizards tail impacted the rock pulverizing it to dust and shattered stone as the twilight wolf dove aside rolling out of the way. _Not my day_. He leapt back as the creatures massive jaws snapped closed where he had been less than a second before. He was shocked by the things speed considering how big it was and how weighted down it must have been by the armor it wore. A desperate leap to the left saved him as the thing whipped it's armored tail forward again and pulverized more stone. The wolf darted forward dodging under the creatures belly, something he noted that also bore armor, and leapt to one joint on a leg. Claws skidded on armor and he only managed a minor bite in passing, not even something to break the skin, not that one would know it with the loud roar the creature gave off. A second later he darted out from between two legs and rushed for the Inn noting that even though several walls looked blown open he could still get to the second floor which might give him a chance to jump onto the things back and hopefully find a weak spot there. So far the only weak spots where almost impossible to exploit as a wolf as he needed a sword.

Claws dug into old wood as he landed on the deck and rushed for the shattered doors even as the deck splintered behind him as large claws smashed into it. Skidding through the doors he gained a few feet on the beast as it tried to turn as swiftly as him and only managed to skid past the door and shatter more wood. Taking the stairs as swiftly as possible Link reached the second story just as the beast smashed what was left of the front of the building to splinters. Link crossed the second floor balcony in seconds and then ducking his head leapt forward smashing through the shutters that now closed the window off. Claws tore into the roof skidding him to a stop before he could topple from the roof to the ground. A second later he leapt to the dirt and rock ramp nearby even as the side of the inn disintegrated under the impact of the creatures tail. With a crash the remains of the building behind him finally gave out smashing down. Not waiting to see if that put the thing down, which he seriously doubted, Link leapt from the ramp to the ruined roof Malo Mart and then hopped down to the ground and made a break for Barnes' store.

The metal door was crumpled as if something powerful had smashed it aside which gave more than enough room for Link to fit through even as he heard the crashing sound of rubble being tossed aside by the lizard getting free of the ruined inn. Knowing he didn't have much time he looked around only to find the place completely cleaned out. Despair almost broke through for a moment as the thumping of the lizard got closer and closer to the building but he remembered the building Barnes stored bomb supplies in. Sure it had been destroyed when he had last seen it but as much as he wanted to deny it, it was becoming obvious that time had passed since he had last been here. It took only seconds to reach the second floor and leaping from still standing cabinet to cabinet he reached the way out above. Running from the building as a crash sounded below he noticed a building, smaller than the one Barnes had had before but it was there, and he rushed to it simply tucking his head and leaping at the door. His size and weight carried him through smashing the door open even as a loud thud sounded from somewhere behind him.

The building was a mess, as if someone had tried to load up as much stuff in a hurry as possible and then just abandoned the rest. There was still a few barrels of explosives and even a few completed bombs lying around, but it was the long tube that caught his attention the most. Auru had used one to help him in Hyrule castle when he was fighting his way through, the thing seemed to be some form of long range bomb launcher. Auru had even shown it to him afterwards. The plan that sprang into existence was both dangerous and messy but it was a plan nonetheless. He could hear the beast approaching and so quickly locked his teeth around one of the grips on the tube and pulled it from the building trying to gain both room and the correct angle. Turning he saw the beast was already at the building and shattered the top with a whip crack of its tail. He didn't have any more time. Putting one paw on the tube to angle it correctly he bit down on the trigger mechanism. For a second nothing happened and he almost let out an enrage howl when the tube suddenly bucked under his paws and the bomb impacted the building and detonated.

Force...he really couldn't describe it as anything but that as his back impacted rock as the building was obliterated by a massive explosion that lifted the lizard and blew it clean off the upper rock ledge and sent it crashing down near the destroyed inn. He wasn't really paying attention to that though, as he was mostly cowering on the ground with his paws at his ears whimpering at the very loud ringing that wasn't going away. With soft whimpers the wolf limped to the edge of the ledge and looked down at the rest of the village below. The lizard lay unmoving on the ground below surrounded by crumpled pieces of armor lying here and there near it. From where he was Link saw that the armor protecting its head was gone and there was a strange white diamond shaped thing set in the scales on the top of its head. He turned and limped his way back to the bomb shop seeing that enough of the building remained to get down. It still took several minutes to get down and exit into the street though the lizard appeared to be either dead or still knocked out. With a soft whimper of pain the wolf limped up the creatures tail and onto its back making his way to its head and looking down at the object. As it had looked from above it was a white diamond, a white diamond that contained a small sphere of black and gold swirling colors. In fact it looked like a Poe soul only that it was black and gold instead of black and red.

A single touch with a paw and he found the diamond shaped object was some kind of liquid instead of a solid. _Was it like a Poe? Did he need to pull out the sphere to finish it off?_ His perch shifted suddenly as the lizard began to wake up and he made a quick decision plunging his head into the liquid and closing his jaws on the sphere. It was all he could do not to pull his head back out as soon as he stuck it in. There was a burning sensation from the liquid and the taste of it was as if he'd shoved his head into a two week old corpse. The rotting flesh taste didn't stop him though and he planted his paws and pulled on the sphere which didn't seem to want to move. Even with his ears buried in the strange liquid he could hear a muffled shriek of pain and his perch jerked thrashing about, which in the end simply made him pull harder until with a muffled crack the sphere came free and he was airborne before slamming down nearly three buildings away. Shaking his head to push away the fuzziness of his impact he felt he could be proud of the fact he still had the sphere in his jaws. The shriek, and the thunder of something large running, was enough to tell him that the lizard was still alive. Looking up he saw the maddened beast charging and in surprise he put bit down hard on the sphere.

With a crunch the sphere broke and a strange bitter taste entered his mouth even as the beast let out a wailing shriek and then smashed to the ground sliding to a stop several feet away. Seconds later the body began to decompose, scales and flesh melting away and then crumbling to dust until only a large skeleton remained. The bitter taste wasn't leaving and he shook his head and trying to spit out the liquid only to have it not only refuse to exit his mouth but suddenly flow back and down his throat causing the wolf to choke. With a pained gurgle Link collapsed backwards, jerking as the liquid burned its way down. No matter how hard he tried to hack the junk up it continued its course down his throat and into his stomach before a glowing warmth flowed through him washing away injuries, healing his accumulated aches and pains as well as the new hurts gained in fighting the lizard. Almost as quickly as it happened it vanished and he was left lying before the bones of the strange creature and among the ruins of a village he had always expected to find friends in.

_Midna, where are you when I need you?_

Forcing himself up and moving he headed through the now even more damaged village to the spring and looked across it's tainted waters letting out a sigh. Staring into the corruption he suddenly felt something welling up within and golden spots flared to life all over his vision. shaking his head he quickly realized that the points of light weren't from the spring but were in his eyes. He looked into the waters and a strange song played in his mind seeming to flow from that same place the points of gold light had come from. He stood and tossing his head back he howled out the song hearing it echo from the cliffs around him spreading outward and amplified by their echoes to travel farther. The rocks and waters of the spring began to glow and slowly light gathered into a dim sphere as a massive owl constructed of the same dim light appeared above it. Slowly his song faded until silence filled the area though he could swear he still heard the echoes of his song still sounding from all around him.

"Hero...You were not expected...I am weak. For a great length of time has the beast devoured my power...But I will recover."

Link looked at the spirit cocking his head to the side wondering if the spirit knew of the approach of the enemy.

"You desire to return to your Hylian form." Eldin watched as Link nodded "Were my full powers at my command I could possibly do as you desire, but I have not the strength to do so. And my brethren have been damaged as badly as myself...To return to your Hylian form will require an artifact of great power, you have previously carried such a thing."

Link looked back at the village nodding to the destruction.

"Time...time has passed Hero...and not all things are as they once were. Many fled from here to the province of Ordon, others to Castle Town, and still others to the realms of the Zora and Goron. Darkness befouls the land and few hold the strength to stand against it."

Links head bowed in sadness as he thought of friends who might not be alive. But he wouldn't let that sadness stop him, his friends could still be alive and fighting and he wouldn't let them down. The spirit said only a powerful artifact could now return him to normal and the only one he knew he had carried was the Master Sword. But could he wield it again? When he left it in the Temple of Time it felt like it was not going to move for him again. He looked at the spirit, a silent question passing to it.

"The darkness...came from...the desert...I must rest." The light dimmed and then faded from view entirely.

Link stared in silent surprise. He hadn't seen anything in the desert, but then he had also apparently been catapulted into the future somehow. He started to turn his head to shoot Midna a questioning glance knowing she'd know just what to say when he remembered she was gone. Instincts were hard to suppress, and he struggled to hold back another mournful cry. Instead he turned and headed back into the village to find anything he could use to aid in a fight against the oncoming troop of skeletal forces. As well as find food and get some sleep before he keeled over from exhaustion, though he had to admit that he felt much less tired than he had when fighting the lizard. He decided to make for the building at the top of the rock ramps that doubled as a storage building and lookout, he just hoped there was something edible there.

Shadows flitted around darkened ruined buildings and up a rock wall to look upon the large wolf sleeping near the shattered wooden balcony that jutted out. She looked at him before glancing down at the skeletal remains of the leviathan beast lying below. Shaking her head with a sigh she turned back to the wolf and reached down touching his left paw and watching as the winged sword mark flared to life for a moment before dimming and fading from view once more.

"You are treading the very edges of our laws daughter." The small black flame floated forward "And if you cross them I won't be the one responsible for what the ancient one will decree."

"It's killing him." She stepped back looking worriedly at the twilight wolf.

"He seems fine to me. Especially with the defeat of the leviathan."

"Take a closer look father, don't look at the simple outward signs. Look inward, to his mind, his essence. Her absence is killing him. And while I doubt she will notice it yet due to having much more essence to sustain her she will eventually feel it as well."

"You speak of the Twili Princess, Midna I believe her name is." The flame floated closer to the wolf and then seemed to bob in surprise "He's infused with small amount of twilight realm essence and...bears a bond to a Twili? How is he still fighting...how is he even living when his bond mate is in another dimension?"

"He has more power than you know father. But the bond, his connection to Midna is killing him, and will continue to do so as long as she is there and he is here. It will be doing the same to her but even this length of time won't be enough for her to have noticed the drain on her power." the shadowy woman floated forward to look sadly at the wolf "Eventually the bond will weaken him and he will die. Granted this won't happen for some time and the power I've given him will aid him somewhat but not enough to keep him going."

"You can't give him more, to do so would arouse the wrath of the others." A sigh escaped the small flame "Child, why must you make everything so complicated? And why would she leave him if she had bonded with him?"

"Do you expect her to even know? Her people have been locked away in the twilight realm for so long that there is likely none who even know of bonding anymore. And all bonds created have been with others in their own realm so there is no problems. To her, and Link, the bond would be nothing more than a feeling. A great desire to see the other, to be around each other. And that now is what is hurting him so much. He keeps looking for her only to remember she is gone when his mind says she should be there. " She shook her head.

"Such a bond would be seen by the goddesses, they couldn't make such a mistake easily."

The woman was silent a moment and then shook her head sadly "You still don't get it do you father. Of course they knew of it. But they weren't going to lose their puppet so easily. They would eventually wake him from his timeless sleep and the bond, with Midna long dead, would be broken and Link would be free to follow through with their petty game all over again. If I had not put a pulse of power into the time-sphere he would still be waiting there, and Midna would slowly grow ever weaker as she couldn't reach Link and would in the end die. Die because of those bitches petty games. Die so the hero they created could be useful a thousand years from now. So Link could be put through hell again to preserve their precious forces of order."

She looked out over the ruined Kakariko "This world suffers father. It needs heroes. It needs defenders and unless you tell the others to get off their fat asses and care what happens here we will see the world crumble and lose any chance to redeem ourselves."

"We don't need to redeem ourselves of anything daughter."

"You stood aside! When our power had returned you didn't try to change things, you didn't return and force them away from the people of this world. You allowed the deaths of countless hundreds of thousands across the millennia while you sat back saying 'it's not our place'. While the darkness returned in cycle after cycle and the good and innocent died to maintain the supposed balance." She spat out the last word, her hatred for it obvious.

"We had no choice..."

"There's always a choice father, and you and the others chose the wrong one. In all of this I've walked alone while the rest of you cower in our realm." Her interruption seemed to surprise the flame which backed away from her anger. "It is time father. And I will see this done whether the others will give aid or if I must stand alone. This will end. The goddesses see this all as a grand game. Well let's see how well they play when the rulebook changes on them in mid-game and the game pieces start to move themselves."

"You challenge what you can barely understand."

"Maybe I do father. But at least I have the spine to challenge it." She could feel the surprise from the flame that was the representation of her father on this level of existence. That surprise changed quickly to anger.

"Don't test my patience child. I'm humoring your actions here but don't think I won't pull the plug on this little venture of yours if it puts our people in danger." He vanished in a flash.

"That's right father, flee back to our realm and sulk in your study reading ancient history and poetry. I'll do what you say can't be done, I'll do the work the rest of you will never have the courage to." With a swirl of shadow she vanished.

Link jerked awake looking around in confusion, for a moment he had thought he heard voices. Shaking his head and letting loose a wide yawn he stood shaking dirt from his fur. The strange scent of roses seemed to float around him for a moment but he banished the thoughts as he heard a faint clanking. Moving to the edge of the rock and then inching out onto the remains of the wooden ledge he looked down to where the enemy was walking into the village. Getting a much better look at the things now he could see they were Stalfos, but they were different than any Stalfos he had ever seen. The stalfos he knew wore large shoulder guards and carried shields and swords. These were armored in plate armor, breast and back plates, shoulder guards, helms, leather boots, even their legs and arms had plate mail on them. Though he noticed the joints were wide open which gave him a chance to shatter the bones holding them together. They also seemed to be carrying everything from swords to axes and spears with their shields. _This isn't going to be easy._

Crouching low on the old wooden balcony he watched as the stalfos approached the massive skeleton, all that was left of the lizard, and looked it over. Most of the stalfos were wearing dark green armor but he saw that two of them were wearing dark purple armor and appeared to be in command of the others. Even so there were twenty of them which meant his chances of winning against them all were slim. Sure if he'd been in his hylian form he would have felt much better about engaging them, though that would have had to do with having his equipment, but as a wolf he was wary of even trying to pick them off if they split up as it wouldn't be long till they all came running.

"Split up." The voice was grating, and surprising since he didn't know stalfos could even talk, and came from one of the purple armored stalfos followed by the entire group splitting up into pairs of twos and threes as they moved through the village. Link noticed that three of them where heading for the bomb shop and tried to figure up a plan as quickly as possible. But even as he watched the three emerged from the shop again and moved elsewhere, it seemed they weren't even going to check up where he was. Or maybe it was that they couldn't get up to this place. Getting down to finish off the lizard had been easy, getting back up had taken nearly ten minutes and there was several times he was sure that the very unstable rubble he was climbing was going to collapse under him. He watched as their search took them throughout the village, though he made sure to keep low to avoid being seen. The search seemed to be conducted swiftly and efficiently, almost like they were acting as normal soldiers, and they soon had formed up again in the center of the ruined village and began to march again. When they reached the far end of the village they turned and headed up towards Death Mountain.

Link quickly tossed out the idea of going after them, he needed the Master Sword and that was in the other direction. And he had faith the Gorons could handle themselves well, he'd seen their strength firsthand and knew that Darbus could likely crush those twenty on his own much less throwing in warriors like Dangoro. Somehow those thoughts didn't make his worries for the Gorons vanish and he wished he could aid them, but he needed a sword and his normal form for that. While his wolf form was good for a great many things battling a large amount of enemies wasn't one of them.

He quickly made his way back down to the lower section of the village and hurried to the sacred spring walking out into the waters and watching as the golden light of Eldin flared to life.

"Hero...danger stalks this land...you must...return to your other form...seek the...sword of evils bane." The light dimmed and the weakened spirit faded away to rest once more.

Link turned to look worriedly back towards the entrance to Death Mountain before turning and starting a distance eating run towards Faron woods. It would take him several days to get there, especially with rests and the need to catch food, but he would reach there as soon as he could. And with his ability to switch back and forth between forms once more granted to him he would be able to truly begin to find out what was going on here.

**HIDDEN VILLAGE**

"I don't believe you."

"General, our scouts have never reported wrongly before." The man sitting at the old table looked at the map that currently had a small red pin stuck in Kakariko village.

"I'm not doubting the beast of Kakariko could be killed. We've managed to damage such creatures before with the stuff Barnes makes for us. But he's saying a wolf killed the beast there." Ilia turned to look at the scout with a frown before turning back to the map and shaking her head "It would take nearly a hundred men with enough equipment to blow that entire village apart to kill such a beast. And I very much doubt that a simple animal could do such." She tried to hold off exhaustion just a little longer. She had just been about to head to find something warm to eat and get some rest when the scout returned with some wild fanciful tale about wolves and the Kakariko beast. The scout had ridden throughout the night and most of the morning since the fall of the beast.

"It wasn't any normal beast i tell ya!" The scout shook his head "That wolf was huge, way bigger 'n anything i ever seen before. Don't think it saw me watchin though. Somehow the thing blew up ol' Barnes' storage building."

"It did what!" Barnes stomped across the room from where he had been sitting by the doorway.

"Saw it with my own eyes, drug something out of the building and when that big dumb beast started to go past the building there was this huge boom and the place went up like nothing you've ever seen before." The man seemed to think it over for a moment "Okay maybe that time Barnes decided to make those celebration fireworks we saw an explosion like that."

Ilia frowned thinking about the supplies that could still be in Kakariko. The men and women under her command were going to run out of food before anything else, and if the beast was truly dead the village could be turned into a defense post to conduct strikes from. She thought for a moment and then quickly came to a decision "Get thirty of our best and get them mounted as quickly as possible, I want to check out Kakariko and see if this is true." She was about to say more when Melenic, her second in command, spoke.

"Ma'am you are nearly ready to fall asleep on your feet, you need to rest."

"I can't pass up an opportunity like this one."

"Then send Pendle, he's more than capable of handling this issue. And if it is as the scout says we can move more troops there to secure the village and you can then go check it out."

Ilia knew she should be complaining but in the end she knew he was right, if she didn't find a bed soon she'd collapse and then she'd be no good to any of her soldiers. "Get it done. I'm going to go get some sleep."

**RUINED DESERT CASTLE**

Sand shifted sliding off a massive chunk of stone that slowly lifted and then crashed aside. A large figure rose slowly from the sand pulling a giant sword from under another chunk of stone. The large Darknut stood shaking sand from its armor. Black armor with gold and silver trim glimmered in the desert light and the huge knight swept it's blade to its back securing it there followed by its large shield. It pulled itself free of the rock and sand that still held its legs and began to trek through the desert following the path of the wolf that had escaped it in the last moments of the collapse of the castle.

* * *

Authors Notes.

Some who know the official timeline of the LOZ games would notice i fudged on some things, especially the flood that drowns Hyrule. I decided to merge the two timelines a little to make this work better. For those who don't know the timelines there are two in the LOZ universe that both hinge on the OOT games ending. There are two ends to OOT, in one Link decides to stay in the future as an adult and this somehow leads to the flooding of Hyrule and the WW timeline.

In the other OOT ending Link is sent back to relive the seven years he missed. When this happens he warns Hyrule of Ganon's attack and Ganon gets his ass handed to him by the Hylian knights because they were prepared for him. The Gerudo are almost completly wiped out, and the spirit temple of theirs is turned into a hylian prison and renamed the Arbiters Grounds. Ganon is then set to be executed but the sages fail in that and in desperation banish him to the twilight realm. This all leads of course to the TP timeline.

The TP and WW games are in completely different universes essentially as the timeline split back during OOT. While i'm not sure of the length of time between games i believe that TP takes place hundreds of years after OOT as Ganon needed time to regain his strength and get back to full power.

In these stories I'm having TP take place nearly 300 years after OOT, or possibly longer as i haven't truly decided yet.


	4. Chapter 4

This chapter reads a little weak to me. It might have to do with the distractions I ran into when I started it and kept moving on it. Either way it's done and I'm moving on to chapter 5 now so I'll just try and forget about it.

Read and review if you want to.

As always i own nothing of Zelda.

In response to NarutoRyomaCub. You are right about the adult Zelda but no adult Link in the one timeline. I think I spaced that completely. Dang I wonder if that actually makes it three timelines. I mean there should be a timeline with the adult link there. And one timeline where adult Link was sent back in time after the defeat of Ganon. And then the kid Link timeline where Ganon was stopped early on. Then again maybe the kid Link timeline overwrote the timeline where he was sent back. But if it was going to overwrite it then it would overwrite all of them and there would have been no Adult Link timeline. I have to believe then that there are three timelines. Adult Link and Zelda is line 1. Adult Zelda, no Adult Link is Line 2. Kid Link timeline leading to TP is Line 3.

You know the people who make the games say they have a chart showing all the timelines. Wish they would let people see it.

* * *

**HYRULE FIELD**

Muscles bunched and stretched as the large wolf surged through the tall grass of Hyrule field on his near direct course to Faron woods. He had slowed only to eat the rare rabbit or small creature caught, or to take a quick rest but he had decided early on to take as few rests as he needed on his trip and while he was starting to feel the accumulated tiredness of constant travel he wasn't going to stop till he reached Faron woods and was under the protection of the greenery of a place he could nearly call home. He had been forced to slip into hiding four times to avoid conflict with a handful of bulblin's and the bullbo they rode as well as a group of stalfos that had seemed to make the bulblin's run away quickly. The two groups weren't working together which Link supposed he should have been happy for since it meant they might fight each other if it came down to that. Though he had to admit that his knowledge of bulblin politics wasn't very impressive. He wasn't sure if King Bulblin was king due to strength of arms or if it had to do with a bloodline. Though he knew that Shad had said that he believed it was a mixture of the two as King Bulblin was obviously much larger than an average Bulblin which spoke of a different bloodline than the average bulblin but the belief was that the bulblin's would never follow any other bulblin who couldn't stay in power by sheer force of arms.

Shad had actually postulated that king Bulblin might very well be a completely different race of bulblin entirely. Unfortunately it was all theory, and theory had been put on the backburner when King Bulblin had taken his forces and headed towards the mountains. Rumors from a captured bulblin had been that the Moblin hordes, cowering in the mountains for some time had decided to make a move on the only place bulbin's considered home. King Bulblin had taken all the forces he had pledged to Ganon, all those that had survived anyway, and headed back towards the mountains to defend the Bulbin's home from the moblin's. From what Link could remember from his short amount of peace before being sent to investigate the castle the princess had been surprised to find out about the trouble in the bulblin lands but had been unable to do anything to take advantage of it with the severely understaffed army and the need to patrol and clear out hyrule field of any dangers to travelers.

At this point though he wasn't sure of anything going on in the lands due to not knowing how much time had passed since his travel through them. Things had been hectic in the days that followed the defeat of Zant and Ganondorf. The military had badly needed to be rebuilt as the majority of it had been decimated by the attack of the twilight beasts. The Hylian knights had suffered nearly heavy casualties trying to repel the invaders from the lands before they could reach castle town. The general Hylian army had suffered nearly as badly and in the end only a small amount of soldiers had been left to try and protect the princess in the throne room. In the end nearly all of the brave had fallen and the cowardly were left to patrol the city and the walls. Link had seen this firsthand when a group of soldiers had chickened out of helping Telma and Ilia move Ralis to Kakariko for medical help. Link had managed to give the princess a few recommendations of a couple of officers that he had noticed had shown backbone during the twilight invasion.

The princess was in the end the ultimate authority in the land and all government revolved around her. There were a few people well off enough that they could possibly be called nobles but in the end they exerted very little power on the crown. From what Link knew of history, which was admittedly not much, there had at one time been a thriving noble population in Hyrule but a previous attack on the city hundreds of years ago had decimated the noble population. There were beings who could be considered nobles in the Zora and Goron races. The Goron's had their elders, and Ralis was the prince of the Zoras and Link was certain there were some who had taken command when Ralis was not in control. In the end they had all been lucky that the twilight had happened so early in the year that they had time to try and ration the remaining food stores as well as hunt and scavenge up enough to last the winter when it had arrived. Ordon had ended up in the best shape as the twilight hadn't reached it. Other lands had been less lucky and he had heard that several provinces had lost their entire early crops and only the hardiest of feed crops had survived the twilight. As winter had arrived they had received several caravans of food from the mountain people, those who lived outside the control of the crown of Hyrule. They had no legal or treaty obligation to send such caravans but they had in the end given aid anyway. Ashei had talked to the driver of one of the wagons, knowing him from times he had come to her father's home, and had seemed as surprised as everyone at the food shipment. She had said later that the mountain people, while refusing to submit to the crown, still remembered where their ancestors had come from.

But still it hadn't been an easy first year after the fall of the twilight but the people had pulled through. And then of course had come the need for funds to rebuild the damage caused across the land by the enemy. And that had led to the surprise of finding the coffers nearly empty, certainly not enough money to fund the rebuilding of much. And that was how he had found himself at the castle and on his trip. Shad had delved through the Hyrule castle archives, they had survived on a lower level, and found reference to an ancient Hylian castle that was supposedly abandoned. The possibility of uncovering funds to aid in reconstruction was too good to pass up and while Link hadn't wanted to admit it there was another reason he had gone. Shad had intimated that there was a strange connection between the twilight and that abandoned castle. The thought of possibly finding a way to Midna had been the real reason Link had agreed to the mission. And while he had seen Twili markings in the castle they had been very few and very far between. He didn't want to admit it but his heart had broken a little more at each dead end found in that place and he had, in the end, been grateful for the fight against the beast that had lived there. It was a chance to vent some very impressive frustration. He was jerked out of his walk down memory lane when the first trees loomed in the darkness of the night and he passed into the edge of Faron woods.

Brush swished aside as he moved quietly through the forest, or as quiet as he could be with a shackle and short length of chain attached to his left front leg. The soft jingle of the chain had long ago stopped irritating him and he simply tuned it out as he moved through the forest keeping an eye out for danger and sniffing for anything of interest. It had been nearly an hour before he picked up a smell he knew all too well, blood. It had been nearly an hour of slow moving through the forest brush following the blood trail when he reached a small opening in the trees and moonlight shone on something bleached white. He could smell the scent of old bones and moved carefully forward until he looked down on the body of a stalfos, though this one wore the more light armor he was used to. Digging into the dead leaves on the forest floor he found the remains of three more stalfos, their swords were nearby and at least two of those blades bore human blood on them. The trail was making more sense now but he wondered if the stalfos had been chasing whoever they had attacked and caught up with them here. He looked at the fully dead stalfos for a moment before turning and continuing to follow the blood trail. It took another half hour but he reached the end in a large clearing where the bodies of seven men lay hacked to pieces on the dead leaves and grass now stained with dried blood. The remains of several stalfos and redead's lay around the small clearing as well but the now fully dead creatures had been destroyed with extreme prejudice. He moved closer sniffing around the clearing but it seemed that no one had escaped the undead assault. The dead weren't wearing any identifying marks but they were dressed plainly, the kind of clothes a simple hunter might wear. The weapons remaining though were anything but simple and Link was surprised to see the mark of Rusl carved into the blades. After looking the swords over more he realized that they were nearly a duplicate of his own well used Ordon sword. That combined with the homespun look of the clothing was making him worried that these people where from Ordon. Not that there weren't other villages in, and out, of the forest that sent people into it for food and firewood. And with things the way they were right now it wouldn't be surprising for Rusl to make swords for others to use to defend their villages. At least he hoped that was what this meant as the thought of Ordon villagers dead was more than he could handle right now, even if he didn't recognize any of the dead. In the end he bowed his head and offered up a silent prayer to the goddesses for the souls of the ones who had fallen.

This had once been a camp for the men who had fallen and he saw two paths leading from it into the woods, one seemed to go in the direction he was sure the forest temple was or at least in that general direction and he quickly followed it heading through the thick trees and trying to ignore the feelings that were telling him he was being followed. No matter how many times he looked back, doubled back, or went off on little side trips through the woods he always seemed to feel like he was being followed but never found any proof of it. In the end he began to ignore it and simply moved onwards heading deeper and deeper into Faron woods hoping to find a good place to bed down for the rest of the night. It didn't take long to find a small opening made from the roots of one of the larger trees and the dirt that covered much of those roots. He crawled into the space and laying his head on his front paws he slipped into slumber.

He didn't know how long he had been asleep but the tramp of armored feet woke him and the sun shone dimly through the leaves of the huge trees of the woods. Peeking out of the narrow darkness of the small opening he watched as stalfos, armored ones like those he had seen out on hyrule field, marched past heading deep into the forest. He had waited till they had gone, and even longer to make sure that he wouldn't run into them by heading out, before crawling free of the small protection he had had and struck off in a direction away from the way the stalfos had been going. He could only hope they had nothing to do with Ordon or any of the forest villages that were here and there in the woods. Still he had to wonder why twenty stalfos would be in the forest for anything but an attack on villages of innocents.

It had taken nearly the entire day but he had managed to pass into the deep forest and now sat near the shattered wood of what had once been a pathway. One of the bones of the rabbit he had caught snapped as he bit down harder on it while looking at the violet mist that flowed around the base of the trees. Giving a sigh he dropped the bone and moved to the edge of the broken wood looking across the mist for any areas that he might be able to jump to. Noticing a large tree trunk sticking up through the mist he leapt to it balancing easily on the small area while looking for more ledges, trunks, branches or outcroppings. He had managed to cross what he believed to be half of the area when he noticed the mist shifting as something moved through it. As it got closer he was able to see it was some kind of snake, a very big snake at that. He crouched lower on the large rock he had made it to and watched as the snake slithered slowly past on its way to who knew where. He shook his head wondering where the creature had come from, he had never seen anything like it while traveling through the forest before. He watched as the disturbed mist slowed its movement indicating the snake was gone and then began leaping again heading for the gates that would lead to the area right before the Forest Temple. The same area that would give him access to the sacred grove, as long as he could get past the Skull Kid.

Nearly an hour later, having spent time resting on his jumping journey, he stood looking at the fallen over cauldrons that had held oil and potions. Trill, the bird that he had bought oil from before was nowhere to be seen and looked to have not been there for quite some time. The wolf shook his head and moved along the edge of the rock face until he stood at the rock that Midna had helped him jump from root to root on a path to the sacred grove. Without Midna he would have found it impossible to make the jumps normally but he knew exactly where the spots to leap to were and so didn't need her to scout out the way before he jumped.

Muscles bunched and a second later claws where scrabbling at wood to jerk him to a stop. Panting in relief he turned and looked at the way forward. Offering up a quick prayer he leapt quickly onward and soon was standing on solid ground. _Lot tougher without Midna_. Shaking his head he stood and walked into the trees with hope that this wouldn't take long. Several hours later he was starting to think that he was lost until he heard faint music playing from somewhere ahead and very dimly he could see a light and hear the soft clanking of a lantern. Moving through the trees he saw the Skull Kid dancing on a tree stump while several puppets moved nearby. Link didn't get the chance to move closer as the skull kid stopped playing and looked up to see him.

"You've come back to play!" The skull kid danced happily.

Link blinked in surprise and then dove to the side dodging the attack of one of the puppets. He quickly recovered and leapt onto the puppet severing it's head from its body in a single bite of his jaws. He kicked off the puppet flipping backwards to slide to a stop only to catch sight of the skull kid vanishing down another passageway. Darting around the remaining puppets Link rushed after the only being he knew who could guide him through the grove. It wasn't an easy trip. The skull kid was faster than he had been before and his puppets were stronger. The grove seemed to be bathed in a deep shade as if the bright life that had once been existent within the trees was sleeping. The lantern light shone just ahead and he burst free of the bushes to find himself over a drop to the ground below. A yelp echoed through the area as he fell to the ground below but when he stood shaking his head he saw the stone of the temple. The skull kid wasn't anywhere in sight and Link was glad he didn't need to fight his way past him again. He moved to the stone crawling through rubble upwards into the main section of the temple to find the place looked exactly as he had last seen it. There was still even some charcoal markings on the wall where Shad had made notations while studying the walls and statues. The Master Sword gleamed from its dais in the other room and he headed towards the doorway.

Not for the first time today did he feel he was being watched again and he moved carefully towards the statues that guarded the doorway to the sword chamber. The thundering boom of twin hammers striking the ground echoed through the temple and only Link's impressive reflexes had granted him enough time to dodge out of the way of the weapons wielded by the enchanted statues. He backed up growling glaring at the two when he realized they weren't looking at him. He spun and stared in surprise as twelve figures dropped to the floor of the temple. They were the same stalfos types that he had seen before except that eleven of these were the purple armored type and leading them was a figure in full grey plate mail, not a single part of the person showed so he couldn't tell if they were alive or not.

"We must thank you beast." The grey armored figure began to walk forward as his soldiers spread out and moved ahead as well "Had you not lead us here we would have never been able to make it through the sacred grove to this place. My master will be most pleased with this turn of events as I have been searching for this temple for two years now."

Link dodged to the side as one of the guardians began to move "You are not allowed here...go dark one, and trouble this place no more."

"Relics of a bygone age. I have no time to waste with such trash." The knight gestured to his soldiers and they rushed forward to hack at the guardians. Link was surprised to see chips of stone break from one of the statues before it smashed two of the enemy in one swing of its massive hammer.

The grating rumble of stone on stone made the wolf shift his view to the doorway to the sword chamber which was closing. He bolted towards it crouching low and sliding through trying to ignore the way the door had managed to brush the tip of his tail when it boomed closed. Quickly jumping up he rushed to the dais and the pedestal that was on it. He circled the sword for a moment until the door to the chamber was in view and then stepped forward noting the white glow building in the sword, the same as it had during his first retrieval of the weapon during the twilight invasion. The glow grew brighter and suddenly a pulse washed outwards forcing him back several feet. Winds whipped outwards and he struggled forwards as the glow of the sword grew blinding. A second later a brilliant light flashed through the chamber and the wolf slammed into the wall with a pained yelp. Slowly standing Link stared down at his paws realizing that he hadn't changed, that for some reason the sword had flung him away instead of curing him.

A loud boom from the doorway caused him to turn towards the door and stare in surprise as cracks spread across it. A second boom and the door cracked more and seemed to bow inwards. With no more time to waste he rushed forward and struggled to reach the sword as wind and light flared to life again. Planting his paws and trying to anchor himself with his claws as best he could he strained forwards. As the power of the master sword pushed against him he felt something pushing back and that same feeling he'd felt at the spring of Eldin flared up again and golden flecks floated through his vision again. The swords light was growing bright enough and the wind strong enough that he almost didn't hear the crash of stone on stone as the door exploded inwards. He did see the chunks of stone fly by and see the grey armored knight stride into the room carrying the hammer of one of the grove guardians, though now the hammer bore dark violet runes glowing on it. Through the light he could see the shattered remains of the destroyed guardians lying in the other room. The knight was followed by two stalfos who were ordered back as the knight approached as closely as he could and still remain outside the master swords awakened power. The knight swept the hammer into the air and with a mighty swing slammed it into the ground releasing a shockwave towards the sword. The shockwave impacted and in a second flashed back towards the knight impacting with enough force to drop him to one knee. Link felt his paws slipping on the stone and strained to stay put noticing as he did that the gold flecks in his vision began to take up more space. Every now and then a grouping of flecks would seem to float together and the world seen from that eye would turn a bright shade of yellow for a moment. And each time it happened he would suddenly get a brilliant view of the temple as it had been long ago, as if he was looking back through time. For just a moment his eyes focused on the knight and he saw silver and gold armor adorned with an unknown marking. The helm was not closed off but open, and inside he saw the bearded face of a man with kind eyes looking out at the world. And then his view went back to seeing the world around him and the grey armored knight who was now standing up once more.

"After two years I will not be denied!" The massive hammer began to glow with a dark violet light and with a mighty heave he threw it forward just as Link strained forward with all his might. The mighty hammer impacted one side of the sword as Link managed to touch the blade. The world turned to light and pain.

Rock shattered as the dais buckled upwards in the center and the pedestal exploded. Link smashed to the floor skidding backwards nearly ten feet before coming to a stop, his eyes clenched shut to try and drive out the blinding white light. Those eyes snapped open when he heard a clanging sound near him. And with horrified and shocked eyes he stared at the broken master sword now lying near him. The blade ended nearly a foot and a half from the hilt and he saw shards of the blade lying nearby as well. Struggling upright and trying to ignore the pains that shot through his body he could only stare at the broken blade while his mind reminded him of two things. The first being that he was still in wolf form, and the other was the knight. The master sword, his last hope, broken by the unknown evil knight who had followed him to the sacred grove. Link spun to look towards the knight letting loose a feral snarl only to get an armored boot to his ribs flinging him across the chamber and nearly into a wall.

"I have completed my mission. I would normally reward you for leading me to this place. But you are obviously no ordinary wolf." The knight drew a sword of green metal from a sheath at the back of his waist and was about to step forward again when a musical note played and several puppets dropped into the room. Two of the puppets grabbed the knights arms and flung him backwards to the floor sending him sprawling even as more puppets entered the room and moved towards the downed knight. Link was so surprised by the attack that he almost missed seeing the small glowing light that suddenly was in front of him. _A fairy_? He stared at the fairy for a moment and then realized that she was making movements as if he was to follow. Looking to the master sword he saw fairies all over collecting the pieces of the sword. A second later one fairy landed on his muzzle managed to get him to look towards where the fairies with the pieces of the sword were going. He quickly followed even as the puppets behind him were sliced apart and more showed up to engage the knight, slowing him down enough for Link to leap to branches and logs and escape the temple out into the forest following the fairies deeper into the woods. The gold flecks were slowly fading until only a couple floated in his vision and even they quickly vanished. He crossed streams and rushed through grass and bushes on his way following the fairies. As he continued along he was surprised to see the shattered remains of buildings strewn here and there among the trees. He was so engrossed in staring at the ruins that he almost ran into several fairies as they stopped at the edge of what looked to have once been a fountain. A green mist floated forward and then reformed into the Great Fairy who strode through the water to where the wolf now rested by the edge of the pool looking mournfully at the shattered blade he had worked so hard to reach.

The great fairy knelt and reached forward placing her hand on the wolfs head healing his injuries and at the same time letting her nature as a fairy let her see into his heart, what she saw worried her but she had no choice in her actions. "Despair not hero of twilight. Travel to the lands of snow and ice and seek an ancient power. There you will be able to return to the form you seek." She smiled as the wolf perked up turning to look at her in excitement "The sword that has broken will travel with you, for though it is shattered its power yet slumbers within."

Link watched as fairies slid the pieces of the master sword into a sheath they had managed to produce from the goddesses knew where and then attached a strap to it while putting ties over the hilt itself to make sure it stayed in the sheath. They flew over and settled the sheathed blade onto his back and secured the strap around him to hold the blade in place. He noticed the great fairy look up worriedly "Darkness approaches. The child is unable to slow it any longer. Leave this place swiftly. Seek the power that sleeps in the lands of snow."

**ORDON VILLAGE**

Bo limped down the stairs looking around the village and it's now much larger size. He had always been proud of their small village, and though he still was there was also a part of him that wished all these people hadn't come here when the trouble started. They had even ended up with about 15 soldiers who, like everyone else, spent their time trying to keep the village fed and protected. The loss of Castle Town a mere two years into the conflict had hit everyone hard, especially considering how many people had been unable to escape the place before it was consumed by the dark power. Rusl had taken it especially hard as his friends in the resistance had been based in Castle Town and had been there when the attack had hit the place. Their fate, along with everyone else who had not escaped, was unknown even to this day as getting any information from outside Ordon was nearly impossible.

The mayor sighed wishing he could get rid of the limp that he had ended up with when they had mounted an assault on the creature living in the spring of Ordona. The attack hadn't gone well and it had only been Rose disobeying her father that had allowed a good chunk of the warriors who had attacked to escape. Rose had peppered the creature with bomb arrows which had disoriented it enough for them to slip away. Rusl of course hadnt been very happy with his daughter at that point and Bo had been forced to play mediator between the two before Rose did something her father would regret, like running away from the village to, in her words, 'Save the world'. The girl reminded him a lot of Link at that age and he knew that Rusl had seen it also and was worried that he'd lose his daughter the way he had lost Link. Bo tried to banish the pang of guilt he still felt so long after Link had disappeared. And yet through it all he still found it impossible to believe the boy had been killed somewhere. Having known the boy since he'd been nothing but a small child Bo simply didn't believe he was gone. He knew he was in the minority on that belief but he wasn't going to give in, not even as the last breath left his body would he believe that the kid was dead. And in the end he knew that with no knowledge of his daughters whereabouts, and no idea if the kingdom had any chance whatsoever, the hope that Link was still out there was one of the few things that kept him going.

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Authors Note: The part with the master sword was the hardest to write for some reason. I revised it over and over again trying to figure out what to do as each time I couldn't get it to feel right. It even now seems a little on the weak side but I ran into a writer's block on how to make it better so I just stuck with what I managed to dredge up from my mind.


	5. Chapter 5

And chapter 5 is done! Sorry for the delay in this one but I started writing it just as work picked up. The next chapter will probably be a little slow as well due to work as well but after that things will hopefully be back to normal around mid-november. This chapter required a lot of rewriting and editing before it got it to what it is. Now I'll get to work on chapter 6.

As usual I don't own anything of the zelda games.

In reply to Actual-Dionysius. I went and read what you put up, thanks by the way, it showed that my failure to beta read that chapter, as well as writing late at night, was a definite problem. Well that and my minor writers block on that chapter. There was a couple things in your write up that I will answer. The first was about the mountain people. You are correct that peak province is under the control of the crown and that anyone living there would be also under the control of the crown. The mountain people I'm going to have show up several times though live outside peak province itself, though still within the thick line of mountains that act as a border between the kingdom and the rest of the world. But due to the fact that they live closer to Hyrule, and the amount of mountains and dangers, they haven't ever made a serious attempt to exit the mountains on the far side. Anyone of them who had ever gone that direction has never returned so people stopped even trying and the village mayors refused to mount any expeditions to find anyone.

The second is about the knight speaking of Link's wolf form, how he said that he normally would have rewarded him but that Link wasn't an ordinary wolf. I do plan to try to cover why he said something that odd later.

Well hope everyone enjoys. Read and review.

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**KAKARIKO**

Ilia knelt on the large skull that lay in the dusty ground of the village. The skull, and the rest of the bones with it, had been studied and looked over by everyone who had the expertise to possibly know anything about them. That was essentially one person by the name of Kel, who had been a peer of Shad's back before the problems had started. The hylian had looked over the skeleton and promptly said that unless he had access to his old sources of info it was doubtful that he would be able to tell much about the thing. Ilia was impressed by the creatures size, though she had seen drawings of it that had been to scale before, it was something else to see it up close. Frowning she touched a strange diamond shaped hole in the bone noting the smooth edges as if the bone had grown that way instead of being cut out. While her knowledge of lizards was limited, and giant lizards non-existent, she was sure that there wasn't supposed to be a hole there. The armor had been interesting in its own right and was currently being used to bolster the barricades that had been constructed on both entrances to the village. Moving the plates of metal had been difficult and she had been worried at the start but Kel had assured her, and the soldiers, that the magic that had suffused the armor was now gone. Even so it was so heavy it had required horses to drag it to where they needed it.

With the barricades built they had defenses against Stalfos or other enemy forces that would try and attack from north or south. Even so the village had suffered heavy damage from the battle that had defeated the beast. The Elde inn had collapsed and Barnes's bomb shop was standing, if it could be called that, by dint of the fact that metal had been used in its construction. Even so it had taken ropes and grapples to get access to the village storehouse on the upper level. Barnes had spent hours trying to salvage anything he could from his bomb shop but hadn't had much luck. He had found a few ingredients in the upper buildings but that was only enough to create a handful of bombs. And cutoff from the Goron's as they were the soldiers were running on stocked supplies they had taken from villages and from a few supply depots that had been set up for the army in case of need. Unfortunately many of those bombs had been stocked years ago and the number of duds in the supplies was distressing. Ilia had been nearly ecstatic when her forces had run into Barnes two years ago while getting supplies from one of the villages near the edge of Faron woods. Many of those who had lived in Kakariko had ended up on Death Mountain with the Gorons. And information from them was completely non-existent as they had sealed the entrances to the mountain when they had fallen under siege by the enemy.

"Ma'am!" She turned as Melenic's voice reached her seeing her second rushing up towards the skull she leapt down and pulled her sword from the ground sheathing it before turning to him. "A scout has just arrived. We've secured some...odd intel."

They headed for the building that had once been Renado's sanctuary but which now was working as the Kakariko Command Center. Minutes later Ilia looked at the nearly dozen maps that lay strewn about on the large table that was set up in the building. "How many did she see?"

"If she was right then we're talking about nearly a hundred Bulblins." Titch shook his head "That's more than we can handle when it's stacked on top of our current load."

"We might not need to handle it." Melenic pointed to a spot on the map representing the mountains and forests near Ordona Province "They're camped out here, or at least a good chunk of them are. And what we've seen before this is that the Bulblins and the stalfos don't seem to get along. They might spend all their time fighting each other."

"And what happens when the stalfos are dead?" Ilia pointed to a different map showing Ordon village "If the Bulblins manage to keep this kind of force down here then they won't hesitate to strike at us if they believe us weak, and we can't even bluff a show of strength. No, we need to make sure that they pose no danger to us, or anyone else."

"Not easy." Melenic shifted a few maps around and looked at the more detailed map he had brought to the top of the pile "Even if we pulled in every force we have at our command we'd only muster two hundred and twenty. The Bulblins are pitifully trained and equipped but we'd still lose many good soldiers taking them down. We're already badly undermanned at current, and the loss of men we'd take to the Bulblins would simply be too much."

"You're saying we should ignore them for now?" Ilia saw her second nod and she found herself reluctantly agreeing "I can't disagree with you, we simply don't have enough men to force the Bulblins back as well as the stalfos and their leaders." She shook her head wishing that she hadn't been shoved into the role of general but not wasting time worrying too much about it. "Dispatch three of our best riders, I want them to make an attempt to reach Ordon village with a message for the people there. If they run into too much danger they are to turn back and return to Kakariko. Another two riders are to spread word about the bulblins to those people we know we can reach."

Ilia waited till the captains were out of the room before sliding a map of the western portions of the kingdom to the top, it contained everything from the Gerudo desert to Snowpeak. "And what of our other scouts?"

"Nothing. Considering how long they've been gone I can only assume they have either died or are on a trail good enough not to return or send one back with a message."

Ilia looked the map over with a frown. Early on in the fighting the idea had been to find out where the enemy was coming from and take out their leaders in one strike. The problem was that the stalfos and redead in service to the enemy were like none seen within Hyrule before. Shad, Kel and others of their profession had worked day and night to dig up any reference to old enemies sealed away or anything at all involving such creatures. Every failure to find information had been one more strike to the hope of the people and everyone had nearly given up. Then Auru had stumbled across something while helping Shad. It was an ancient tome that's pages were so damaged by time that many had crumbled even as they were turned, but in the end they had gotten some info from it. There were references to an army of armored skeletal knights in service to someone known as the Fallen King. But the only information on where he happened to be was a reference to a city called Mordoven. With no knowledge of such a place a search for ancient maps had begun and it had ended when Velice, an associate of Shad's, had found one of the oldest still intact. They had found no reference to any city, destroyed, lost, or the like within Hyrule. What they had found was an ancient trade route that apparently had gone through the mountains. It was believed that it was possible the enemy wasn't from Hyrule itself but from elsewhere. Before any search could be made Castle Town had been attacked and they had lost not only their home and central command but nearly all the military leaders. It had taken time, years in fact, of hard work to build the scattered forces back into a coherent fighting force instead of the small hit and run groups they had turned into. But under the commanders Dosa, Verner, and Reza, they had built a fighting force that had been able to hold their own against the enemy. They had never forgotten the map and the information that had been gained from it. The belief was that the enemy might be coming through that ancient trade route and so five years ago, not long after the new central command had been established, general Reza had taken fifty men and marched for where they had pinpointed the route through the mountains, they never returned. A year later Dosa had sent twenty soldiers on a covert mission to try and locate Reza's command and then to continue on to the trade route. Months after they had left, and long after it was believed they had died, two soldiers had rode back into camp with a tale to tell. They had found the remains of Reza's command, and then promptly fell into the same trap that Reza had. Only the two had escaped, and they had taken a great deal of time to recover, and ridden back as quickly as they could once back on their feet.

As far as anyone was able to tell the enemy had set up ambushes to hit anyone attempting to approach the trade way. This only led to Dosa and Verner believing even more so that the enemy was entering that way. The problem quickly became that if the enemy really was coming in from there they would have reinforced their position greatly by this point in time. And there was only a limited amount of manpower available to the army and the Hylian knights. When word got out about possible problems for the mountain people Verner had taken the last of the Hylian knights and headed into the mountains. While the path through the Zora's domain was blocked there were other passes into the mountains and Verner had taken one that would lead past snowpeak, they hoped to get aid on the trip from Yeto and Yeta, who were old friends of Link. No messages or soldiers had ever returned from that trip and Dosa had gotten increasingly worried that they were being picked apart one group at a time. After the vanishing of Verner he had stopped sending forces out to aid in places far from the central command. For a time it had worked and they had managed a few large victories under his leadership. Unfortunately it wasn't to last and slightly more than two years ago he had fallen, along with nearly forty of their best in one last vain attempt to break the enemies hold on Castle Town.

The death of a good portion of the higher ranks had left Ilia in overall command of the remnants of the military. While there was two hundred and twenty under her direct command she knew that there was likely a total of around three hundred if she could rally all the forces that were hiding out in villages or locked in besieged areas. Even that wasn't enough to handle what was happening around the kingdom right now. When she had ended up in command she had made it obvious that she didn't think the enemy was coming by way of that ancient road. It might have only been a feeling but she believed that the enemy was simply ambushing anyone who went looking for it. She believed that they were getting into the kingdom some other way. But the thought of an unguarded way into the kingdom was too much to just leave to chance. She had sent four of their best scouts, those trained specifically in stealth and hunting, to find the ancient trade way and then report back. That had been two months ago and they had received nothing in return, her hopes on the survival of those troops was thinning but for some reason she still held out hope that they survived and were still on mission, it might have been a wasted hope but it still persisted.

"They're the last, we're not sending anyone else that way." She frowned for a moment and then gestured at a map lying at the edge of the table, a map of death mountain. "Send two scouts up the path, I want to know if there's still any enemy up there. Have them approach till they reach the area known to be held by the beast and then come back and report, unless they run into stalfos first."

Melenic nodded and headed out to start giving orders while Ilia looked at the map where they had marked the path the scouts would have taken. The path would have taken them through a mountainous area between Snowpeak and the Gerudo desert. The old map had shown a pass through the mountains which opened up to a large plain leading up to the border mountains themselves. Newer maps showed only a section of mountains there, and it was believed that the original pass had collapsed leading cartographers to believe the area was nothing but mountains. But it was more than that as well, as Ilia had found out, there had been a very ancient royal decree that had listed those mountains off limits. That decree had happened nearly a thousand years ago and yet was still in force even though all maps showed the area to be impassible mountains. She settled back into a chair and shook her head, for some reason she couldn't shake the feeling she was only seeing half of what was going on.

**GREAT BRIDGE OF HYLIA**

Fur brushed stone as Link slipped up the edge of one of towers at the end of the bridge overlooking Lake Hylia. There was a loud screeching that had been hurting his ears ever since he approached the bridge and he shifted forward to peak around the edge of the tower and look out onto the bridge. Blinking in surprise the wolf watched as what looked to be nothing more than a huge ReDead strode across the bridge dragging its sword behind it. Link couldn't help but wonder where the thing had come from as no redead he had ever seen stood at the near ten feet that this one did. During his watching it had reached the far side of the bridge and turned around to begin walking back, as if guarding the bridge itself. He was starting to work on a plan to get past the thing when he heard the loud thundering of hooves as something approached the bridge. Melting back into the shadows as best he could he watched as five Bullbo's came into view rushing the bridge. They swept past his hiding spot and were quickly making their way towards the redead with three bullbo's leading and two running behind.

The three leading Bullbo's were still several feet away when the redead screamed causing the Bullbo's to skid to a stop and cower back. The creature got ready to swing it's sword only to have the remaining two bullbo's rush through gaps left between the others and impact the redead. Tusks ripped upwards cracking bone and sending the redead flying back several feet where it impacted the bridge only to get run over by the two mounts. Flaming arrows peppered the creature setting it's bandages alight and a second later the bullbo's charged back over the undead creature, shattering bone and ripping it apart with strikes of their hooves and tusks. It was only his sharp hearing which gave him warning and Link jumped back into the shadows again as three more Bullbo's trotted up to the bridge.

Two of the three were the same as the others, brown furred giant animals carrying the normal Bulblin soldiers. It was the one in the lead that got Link's attention though. The bulblin was tall, almost as tall as King Bulblin, though unlike king Bulblin this one was thin and bore a giant sword resting across it's back as well as wearing thick plate armor. It's mount was the same large, grey furred breed as King Bulblins but unlike the king's this mount wasn't armored. Link had to wonder if Shad was right and that Bulblins like the King and the one he saw now were a different type entirely. It was obvious this bulblin was in command of the others and it strode to the downed redead and looked it over before nodding to its soldiers and heading back towards its mount. Climbing up onto it the large bulblin lifted a horn to its mouth and blew a long flat note that was answered from somewhere to the northeast by a similar sound.

Slipping out from his hiding spot the twilight wolf watched as the bullbo's rushed away across the bridge and could only wonder what they were doing down here. Had the war with the Moblins ended and King Bulblin was wondering what was happening in hyrule now? That could be the only reason Link could think that there would be any Bulblins within the kingdom. Moving out onto the bridge he stopped halfway across to scramble up onto a broken section of stone and look down at the black waters far below. Shaking his head he leapt back onto the bridge and headed across, avoiding the shattered remains of the oversized redead on the way. As he headed into Lanayru province he debated with himself about going to at least get a look at Castle Town. But as always came to the conclusion that it would be best to simply stay away from the town for now and head straight for Zora's Domain instead.

**LANAYRU PROVINCE, NORTH HYRULE FIELD**

**One Week Later**.

Paws dug into muddy ground and the sheathed sword thumped against his back as he rushed across the land towards the entrance to Zora's domain trying to outpace the two packs of Stalhounds that had picked up his trail nearly an hour ago. He couldn't take on so many in his wolf form and so was hoping that he might be able to get aid from the Zora's. The closer he got to the cave that allowed entrance to the Zora's realm the more desperate the howls from behind him seemed to get. But his strength was also starting to fail and what had started out as a dead run across the field had slowed considerably, which was why the stalhound's were catching up. He shook his head to throw water from rain soaked fur and continued his attempt to reach the cave while holding onto his hope that the Zora could help him.

The wall of rock looming from the darkness ahead forced him to skid to a stop and desperately look around for any sign of the entrance he had used during his earlier travels. He could hear the stalhounds closing in behind him when he noticed the change in the rock face and saw a small opening that led into the cave he was looking for. At some time during his absence the entrance must have collapsed and nearly sealed off the cave. He quickly scrambled up the rock, hesitating for only a second at the feel of cold wind blowing from the small opening, and then worked his way through and into the cave behind the collapsed rock. Once inside he turned to look outside to see if the stalhounds would follow and try to make their way through the rock as well. Fighting them here would be the best chance he had as they would be forced to enter one at a time, but even as he watched the stalhounds slowed and then milled around near the base of the rock pile and then with a howl of anger they turned and ran back out into the field.

The twilight wolf shook his head and turned to look into the cave, ears laying back at the chill wind blowing through it. There should have been two guards near the Field entrance, or at least there had been ever since the way had been opened again. Leaping down from the rock he looked up and noticed the roof of the cave had a large jagged hole blown in it. That at least answered where the rubble that had clogged the entrance had come from but the rock also didn't look right. He had seen so much bomb blasted rock in his travels that he was able to tell that that's what this was, someone had blasted the cave to seal it off. _People_ _do that for a reason usually_. He brushed the thought aside and slowly made his way down the entrance to the Zora's home. The cave would open up to an open sided path with stone support pillars overlooking the pool below that contained everything from the Zora to the smelly reekfish. The closer he got to where the cave opened up the colder it became until he was walking on snow that layered the floor. _Frozen again_? And yet something was definitely different this time, the feeling of the place. The cold that seemed to seep even through his fur and cause him to shiver, something he hadn't even felt on the summit of Snowpeak. This cold was worse than anything he had felt before and he had noticed the walls were now covered in ice as well.

Reaching the where the cave opened to look upon the pool he stared in surprise at the two Zora that were standing with their backs against the rock wall. One was peeking around the rock to look down at the pool while the other was holding their spears. It wasn't that they were there, it was that they were frozen solid where they stood. Link had seen frozen Zora before but they had been caught in the water as it was frozen, he hadn't ever seen them frozen like this. This reminded him somewhat of the freezing abilities of the Freezards from the snowpeak ruins. He had saw a white wolfos get caught once by the things breath and it had been frozen solid. But even that ice had lasted only a few moments before the wolf was able to shatter it, this ice was somehow remaining solid even after a possibly great length of time. It was possible that the sheer cold of the surrounding air was making the ice stronger and immune from breaking. He moved slowly forward looking out into the pool area only to see nothing but ice hanging everywhere. As he moved along the path he noticed other Zora on it that had been frozen in mid-run heading for the safety of the cave and its path to the field. Moving around until he reached the top of the path he moved out of the cave and up the earth and rock to look at the frozen river that normally poured over the cliff and fell to the pool below. The wolf looked across the overlook noting even more frozen Zora and he moved slowly towards the entrance to the royal hall walking across ice coated rock to reach the room until he stood looking at the frozen Zora within. Link recognized Ralis's frozen form immediately, the Zora stood before his throne with one arm raised in an attempt to protect himself.

"You have returned." The wolf jumped in surprise looking around till he spotted the voices owner. The ghost of Queen Rutela floated above the throne looking sadly out upon her people. "My son believed, even to the last, that you would return." Link looked sadly to Ralis but Rutela shook her head "Do not feel responsible for this. Had you been here, you as well would have fallen."

Link looked across the Zora, both those above the water and those trapped within it before looking to Rutela in hopes of an explanation. The former queen floated forward to look down into the ice below.

"The darkness began its assault upon the land six years after you vanished." She saw the wolf's eyes widen and in them a desperate question. "You have been gone for seventeen years." Shock was the first thing she saw in the transformed hero's eyes and his ears drooped followed by a soft whine. "The darkness came, the stalfos its army, the great monsters its power where it felt it needed them. It is a testament to your memory upon the land that the people did not cower before the darkness. They fought, but in the end the already weakened army could not stand and Castle Town fell to the enemy two years into the conflict."

It was another blow to an already heavily burdened mind. He had avoided even going close to Castle Town when heading for the north hyrule field. Now he wished that he had detoured and spent at least some time there, at least he could have seen what had happened to the city.

"The great beasts devoured the spirits and others were sent to places that proved to be too difficult for the enemy to breach. Ralis had the soldiers collapse the entrance from the field and the waterways were a natural barrier to the enemy, though even within those caves defenses were built. Unfortunately no one thought to worry about the one entrance that wasn't blocked...the path to Snowpeak. The enemy sent a creature over the frozen mountain passes and it approached through the snows and ice gaining strength as it went. It's very presence froze the waters and the few who were outside succumbed to its freezing breath. In an instant the defeat that had been staved off for years fell upon my people." The ghosts head bowed and Link could see the deep anger that she held. "No help has come from any others in Hyrule. The Hylian knights and army are scattered and weak, the Gorons are trapped upon their mountain, and the villagers huddle within their homes in terror of what will happen to them if they resist any longer. It took the enemy years but in the end they broke the will of the people." Link looked over the frozen Zora again and loosed a growl before turning and walking out towards the overlook. Looking down from atop the frozen waterfall he examined the jutting areas of ice and rock before slowly beginning his descent down the ice.

With a last thump he landed on the frozen lake at the base of the waterfall looking around for any sign of the creature that Rutela spoke of. As he moved across the frozen pool he realized the cold was even worse here than it had been up above causing him to shiver even more than up above as he made his way towards the entrance to Snowpeak. It wasn't until he was halfway across the pool that he heard the faint crackling sound that seemed to come from the pool itself. Looking around he noticed that every now and then ice seemed to shift and move causing cracks to form that quickly sealed closed. With shock he realized that he was walking on the very creature that Rutela had spoken of, somehow it had spread itself across the surface of the pool as a layer of thick ice. But if that was the case he could only wonder how the thing had managed to get through the Snowpeak tunnel considering the impressive size of the pool that it now covered. Before he could wonder about it more the ice creature shifted causing ice to twist and crack before sealing up again. Link leapt from his current spot and rushed across the remainder of the pool and the creature in it to reach the Snowpeak entrance. Looking back he could see Rutela looking at the creature from the mother and child rocks before looking to Link.

"May your travels bear fruit hero, for all our sakes." Looking sadly across the pool she faded away.

Link looked at the pool one last time vowing to return when he found the power he sought. Turning he rushed out through the tunnel into air warmer than that that was within the Zora's domain. Looking across the frozen lake at towards Snowpeak he made a quick decision. While it was doubtful that the power he sought was within the mansion on the top of the peak he wanted to make sure his friends were safe before he went looking for it. Giving one last glance back down the tunnel he leapt down to the frozen lake and began the long trek to reach the home of the two Yeti.

**TRADE WAY**

Vin knelt looking down in the long grass looking down the hills slope towards the mountain ahead marking everything she saw to make sure she could report it back in detail. Ren knelt next to her using a Hawkeye mask to examine the foot of the mountain. It was an impressive sight to behold for someone who had never really travelled into the mountains before. The grassy plain ran right up to a sheer rock wall that extended up into the clouds above as if the rock had simply been slammed down into place with no foothills to speak of. At the base of the wall was the ruins of a town, by the looks of it the place had likely been around the same size as Castle Town but now was nothing more than ruined buildings and scattered rubble. The old trade way wasn't a pass through the mountains like some had believed but appeared to have been a tunnel that had been cut straight through the mountains somehow. Now though, the tunnel only extended about ten feet into the mountain face before a solid wall of rock blocked the way. Even as he watched Ren could see stalfos moving around through the rubble of the old town.

"I'd say the general was right." He lowered the Hawkeye and handed it to Vin so she could look "They aren't coming through there, but they could be trying to find a way into the place."

"Maybe however they got here limits their numbers." Vin lowered the mask and quickly used some charcoal to mark a few lines on a piece of leather. "They could be trying to gain access to the old trade route to allow them to move a full army through." A few moments after she spoke though she shook her head "But they don't appear to be trying get the tunnel open, no explosives or mining equipment at all." She frowned as she scanned the camp "Maybe they are just here to stop anyone else from gaining access to it."

"Stopping reinforcement? From where? The old map was correct, I'll give it that, but that also means that Hyrule hasn't been in contact with the rest of the world for a very long time. Who would we call on for aid?"

"Maybe not so much as stopping us from getting reinforcements as stopping someone else from getting reinforcements." She frowned as she quickly went over several scenario's in her head.

"You mean they might be here to stop someone else from coming through and seeking aid from us?" Ren laughed "That would be just the icing on the cake wouldn't it? Someone coming to ask us to aid them when we're the ones in need. And who would try to reach a kingdom that you don't even know really exists? As far as anyone out there might know this entire area could be nothing but mountains. It's not like we've ever tried to reach anyone else."

"It's one possibility, among several." She shook her head "We need to report back." She looked once more at the camp of stalfos before she and Ren turned to make their way back to what they considered safety. They had lost the other two scouts who had come with them to enemy action but Vin had managed to find a way through the mountains that even the stalfos hadn't been able to follow them through. Now they just had to get back and report on their findings.

Neither scout had noticed the small golden butterfly that rested on a stalk of grass some distance from them watching them while they watched the camp below. As they left the butterfly lifted into the air and flew away.

Down in the stalfos camp another golden butterfly rested on the remains of a shattered tower watching the stalfos move around their camp, a moment later it also flew away.

**FARON PROVINCE, HYRULE FIELD**

With a loud cry the bulblin gripped the reins of its bullbo tighter and as the beast bore down on the large armored figure ahead of it. The bulblin had recognized it as a darknut and while it was confused as to why one would be out in the open it had decided that its orders to clear out enemy forces in the field referred to the being ahead of it as well. The darknut shifted his weight sliding one foot back and just as the bullbo reached him his hands lashed forwards catching the bullbo's tusks. Feet skidded backwards for a few moments from the sheer weight and momentum of the creature before it came to a dead stop. The darknut's hands gripped tighter and with a mighty heave he flung the beast into the air and to the side snapping it's tusks off. Before the bullbo could even try to get back to its feet a huge blade slammed down slicing its head off. The bulblin squealed in panic and sprinted away as fast as it could knowing the darknut wasn't a fast moving warrior. The bulblin looked back only once, just in time to see the edge of the large blade as it spun towards him.

The darknut came to a stop next to the sliced in half bulblin and looked at it for a moment before continuing on to where its blade was buried into the ground another ten feet away. Gripping the hilt it pulled it free of the ground and swept it onto it's back with its shield. It turned to continue its tracking of the wolf when it heard a horn sound to the northeast. The faint blat of the horn stirred something buried deep in the armored knight, a memory so lost to time that it was more a feeling that a true memory. Turning the knight began to trek northeast, while it wasn't sure why it was doing it there was too much of a pull to ignore.


End file.
